Now You, Too, Can Talk Like an Subliterate Jerk

Ad Addictionary Allows Users to Learn Moronic AdSpeak!

It's one thing for business folk to throw around words and phrases like "paradigm" and "outside the box" and "at the end of the day." It's another when too-clever-by-half creative sorts start making up fake words because they were too lazy to use perfectly normal English. My biggest peeve: Concepting. Hey, you tool, there's already a verb form of concept. It's conceive. I guess that's the sort of genius we can expect from people who sit around conversating (talking) and ideating (what passes for thinking). Don't let my own typos hide the fact I was a former English teacher and copy editor!

Anyhoo, now there's a dictionary so that we proper English speakers -- should we find ourselves trying to decipher "communication" coming from this sort of person -- can translate. The Advertiser Addictionary "is a wiki-ish website of user-generated content, a constantly growing collection of real and made-up advertising-related words and terms. Some are relatively new but commonly used, like 'millennials' and 'permission marketing.' Others have been created solely for the purpose of a pitch or even just to entertain the creatives during the ad-making process."

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Ken Wheaton

Ken is only about half as mean as his photo indicates. Short, to-the-point e-mail queries are appreciated. Read the site and recent issues before pitching.